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SINGAPORE: A man who met a maid on dating application Tinder had a sexual relationship with her and was later egged on by the woman to repeatedly rape his 11-year-old daughter.
The 54-year-old American man, who cannot be named to protect his daughter's identity, was sentenced to 24 years' jail on Monday (Oct 27).
The maid, 33-year-old Filipino domestic helper Albao Shiela Marie Ibales, was given 22 years' jail. There is no gag order on disclosing her identity.
The man pleaded guilty to three charges of statutory rape while in an exploitative relationship and one count of perverting justice, with another 12 charges taken into consideration.
Shiela admitted to three charges of abetting rape, with another 11 charges taken into consideration.
The court heard that the victim's parents had been separated since about 2019. The victim, who was then 11 and in primary school, lived with her mother and her other relatives in a Housing and Development Board flat on weekdays, but would stay with her father on weekends.
In early 2022, the man met Shiela on Tinder and they began dating, regularly engaging in sex and exchanging "sexually charged and deviant messages".
These included messages about indecent acts involving a future child they might have, as well as a future pet dog.
In March 2023, while his daughter was staying with him for the weekend, the man exchanged sexualised messages with Shiela about his daughter.
Shiela asked the man for a photo of the victim in a sex act with him and "advised" him on how to get her to comply, the prosecution said. The man then came up with the idea of a "bet", involving a series of acts which the victim must accomplish for her to get a reward.
He filmed the sex acts, which were sent to Shiela. The woman replied: "Amazing!"
At one point, Shiela was "dissatisfied" with one of the videos as the man's face was not shown, and the man redid the video capturing his face.
The acts culminated in the man raping his daughter, egged on by Shiela.
The girl had been through sex education in school and later realised that what her father had done to her was wrong.
She was confused and did not know what to do, but kept it a secret as her father had warned her not to tell anyone what had happened.
However, she was unable to keep it to herself and told her form teacher about what had happened two months later, in May 2023. The police were called in.
POLICE PLAN TO NAB MAN
The police devised a plan to arrest the man without tipping him off.
On May 5, 2023, the man was informed that the victim and her mother were at KK Women's and Children's Hospital and that he had to go there as well.
Sensing something amiss, the man sent a voice message to Shiela, instructing her to remove her WhatsApp profile picture. The photo showed them in a sex act.
He also told her not to send him any messages until he texted her first and warned that if he did not text her by 7pm, "something is up". He said he would be deleting all communications between them.
These included the photos and videos he had taken of himself sexually abusing his daughter.
The man then deleted all communications with Shiela from his phone and told her to do the same.
He was arrested at the hospital that day, and Shiela was nabbed a day later.
During investigations, the man was uncooperative, the prosecution said. He refused to give the passcodes to his devices and initially denied performing any sexual acts on the victim.
However, Shiela did not manage to delete her communications with the man before her phone was seized by the police. The officers uncovered 20 videos and 43 photos from Shiela's phone recorded over two days, showing the man sexually abusing his daughter.
When confronted with the material, the man claimed that he was unable to recall doing any of the acts and gave various reasons including undiagnosed Alzheimer's disease, dementia, a head injury and an alcoholic blackout.
He was remanded for a forensic psychiatric evaluation and found to have intact abilities for intellectual functioning, executive functioning and working memory.
He was also found to maintain at least some degree of awareness and control of his actions, as well as an understanding of the wrongfulness of what he did to the victim.
THE SUFFERING OF THE VICTIM
The girl was referred to the Child Guidance Clinic for forensic assessment. She had been feeling sad and angry since the sexual abuse, suffering insomnia, nightmares, suicidal thoughts and flashbacks.
She was afraid of men, had difficulty trusting others, and was always on guard. She also engaged in self-harm and became quiet, withdrawn, sad and angry.
The prosecution sought at least 22-and-a-half to 22 years and eight months' jail for the man, saying he not only failed to protect his daughter but committed "a series of depraved sexual acts against her".
The prosecutors added that the victim has suffered greatly, and the extent of harm "cannot be overstated".
She said in her victim impact statement that she feels "trapped and unable to escape" from the situation, developing stress-related twitches and suffering panic attacks.
The prosecution sought at least 22 years' jail for Sheila, for instigating and instructing the man to commit the crimes.
The man was represented by lawyers from Trident Law, Ms Tan Jun Yin and Ms Sugenya Manogaran, who sought 20 years and 11 months' jail for him instead.
Ms Sugenya said the defence wished to acknowledge fully the seriousness of the offences and harm caused to the victim, and that what they were asking for was not leniency, but a proportionate and just sentence.
For each count of statutory rape while in an exploitative relationship, the man could have been jailed for between eight and 20 years. He cannot be caned as he is above 50.
For perverting justice, an offender can be jailed for up to seven years, fined, or both.
